FUTA won’t trust President

January 12, 2012, 10:02 pm , The Island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Despite President Mahinda Rajapaksa directing Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake to put on hold the ‘private university bill’, university teachers yesterday warned the government that education would become a commodity under the proposed bill.

President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri told a press conference that their main demand this time was for the withdrawal pf the proposed bill which would enable private universities to operate here.

"We don’t trust President Rajapaksa’s words as we have been cheated by him several times," he said.

Dr. Devasiri said that Higher Education Ministry refused a discussion on higher educational reforms, but when FUTA threatened trade union action on Jan. 17 the ministry offered a discussion today (13).

He said that according to the agreement which FUTA entered into with the Higher Education Ministry, when temporarily suspending trade union action on July 21, the ministry promised to consult university teachers when taking decisions on the higher education sector in the future.

"But, they never consulted us when drafting the private university bill," Dr. Devasiri said adding they have a moral right to be involved in decisions concerning the university sector, as stakeholders.

The senior academic said that Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne did not give them a copy of the draft bill even after they they made a request for it.

"Currently, the professor who made the ‘Z’ score formula a decade ago, insists that the ministry didn’t consult him when combining the ‘Z’ score of the old and new syllabuses of the recently released GCE (A/L) results," Dr. Devasiri said adding that it was another problem created due to the non-involvement of the correct experts in the field.

He said that FUTA also requested the government to consider allocating approximately 6 per cent of GDP to the education sector and that too was in the agreement.

But the government had cut down the funds for the higher education sector this time disregarding their request, he said.